Text and Photo by Henrylito D. Tacio

 
Food insecurity, deforestation, water scarcity, loss of biodiversity, climate change, security, and future population growth – these are the issues and concerns the world is facing today as population continues to surge.
 
That’s according to a new report, “Seven Ways 7 Billion People Affect the Environment and Security,” released by the Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center. 
 
“Seven billion people now live on Earth,” explained authors Meaghan Parker and Geoff Dabelko, writer/editor and senior adviser of the ECSP, respectively. “But this milestone is not about sheer numbers. Demographic trends will significantly affect the planet’s resources and people’s security.”
 
Growing populations, they claimed, put stress on dwindling natural resources while high levels of consumption in both developed and emerging economies drive up carbon emissions and deplete the planet’s resources.
 
“Slow-burning climatic changes and extreme weather threaten both agricultural productivity in rural areas and extensive infrastructure in ever-denser population centers,” the two authors warned.
 
The same issues cited by the two authors are also confronting the Philippines.  In June of last year, the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) in its World Population Data Sheet placed the country’s total population to 96.2 million, the second most populated country in Southeast Asia (after Indonesia, which has population of 241 million). 
 
By mid-2025, the Philippines will be home to 117.8 million people.  It will surge to 154.5 million by mid-2050.
 
As more and more people are added to the current population, availability of food will become a problem.  That’s why Kazuyuki Tsurumi, the country representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, advised the Aquino administration to consider food security as among those which should be given top priorities.
 
“One important point the country should consider is the survey results that says 20 percent of Filipinos do not have enough food to eat,” Tsurumi said in an article posted on the news site of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
 
In tandem with food insecurity is water scarcity.  According to the ECSP report, about 1.8 billion people, by 2025, will be living in countries with scarce supplies of water, and two out of three will be living in conditions of water stress.
 
Each day, a person needs about 150-200 liters of water to meet his basic requirements – for drinking, food preparation, cooking and cleaning up, washing and personal hygiene, laundry, and house cleaning.
 
Two years ago, columnist Peter Wallace wrote: “For a population of 94 million (in the Philippines), that’s around 19,000 million liters per day. A population of 170 million, a short 30 years from now, will need around 34,000 million liters per day. Metro Manila’s around 12.5 million residents need about 2,500 million liters of water per day.”
 
“The rapid urbanization of the Philippines, with more than 2 million being added to the urban population annually, is having a major impact on water resources,” noted the Asian Development Bank in one of its annual reports.
 
Another reason for water scarcity is deforestation.  Without vegetative cover, especially trees, the land’s water absorption capacity is greatly reduced.  “Deforestation has left upper watersheds unprotected, destabilizing river flows, with significant effects,” wrote Robert Repetto in his book, “The Forest for the Trees? (Government Policies and the Misuse of Forest Resources)”.
 
The ECSP report stated: “An average of 10 hectares of forest were lost each minute between 2000 and 2010, due mainly to clearing for agriculture and timber. In addition, the energy demands of the more than 2 billion people who depend on wood for cooking and heating have helped devastate tropical forests.”
 
In the Philippines, “severe rural poverty and a high population growth rate (2.2 percent) and density (273 people per square kilometer) have put enormous pressure on the remaining forests,” Conservational International (CI) said.
 
The stripping of trees in the forests also means loss of biodiversity.  “The loss of species touches everyone, for no matter where or how we live, biodiversity is the basis for our existence,” wrote John Tuxill and Chris Bright, authors of “Losing Strand in the Web of Life.”  In other words, without biodiversity man ceases to exist.
 
Every hour, three species become extinct. “As we have become more numerous, we have also become more adept at altering ecosystems for human use, replacing species-rich natural landscapes with simpler monocultures,” said Laurie Mazur, Wilson Center adviser.
 
“The Philippines is one of the most threatened in the world. The rate of extinction of species is 1,000 times the natural rate because of manmade activities,” deplored Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).  “It is a crisis. We are the hottest of the hot spots.”
 
Population density is “a good indicator of biodiversity loss,” said Richard Gorenflo of Penn State University. “Understanding how populations grow and are distributed across the landscape may help us find ways to minimize the impacts of population density on specific habitats and biomes,” the ECSP report said.
The booming population has also been cited as responsible for global warming, rising sea levels and extreme weather events, according to a report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
 
“It is extremely likely that human activities have caused more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperatures since the 1950s,” the IPCC report said.  In IPCC’s parlance, “extremely likely” means a level of certainty of at least 95 percent. The next level is “virtually certain,” or 99 percent, the greatest possible certainty for the scientists.
 
Last year, the Congress has amended Republic Act 9729, or the Climate Change Act, allotting P1 billion yearly for the government’s efforts to combat the effects of climate change.  The amended law has a provision creating the People’s Survival Fund (PSF), a special trust fund to finance adaptation programs and projects to be determined by the country’s Climate Change Commission.
 
The fund shall specifically be used in efforts to prevent diseases caused by climate change, to improve the country’s forecasting and early warning systems, and to assist farmers and agricultural workers affected by climate change.
 
Climate change is an issue that has no boundaries; it affects every nation and every citizen. “At the end of the 20th century, nearly 90 percent of countries with very young and youthful populations had undemocratic governments,” the ECSP report said.  “Eighty percent of all new civil conflicts between 1970 and 2007 occurred in countries where at least 60percent of the population was below age 30.”
 
Wilson Center adviser Elizabeth Leahy Madsen commented: “Today we have the largest generation of young people in history, with more than half the world’s population under 30.  The opportunities that are available or not available to these young people will determine their country’s futures.”
 
Speaking of futures, what’s in store for the world in the coming years? Although population growth are reportedly declining in most parts of the world, it is not so in other countries.
 
By 2050, the United Nations says the global population will be between 8 billion and 11 billion people, and where it ends up depends in large part on the status of women in developing countries.
 
“At current fertility rates, developing regions would grow from 5.7 billion in 2010 to 9.7 billion in 2050, while developed countries’ populations would stay mostly the same,” the ECSP report said.  “But today’s fertility rates are not likely to remain stable.”
 
“One of the most direct reasons for past declines in fertility rates was the rapid expansion of family planning and reproductive health programs, supported by country governments and international donors, that enabled women and men to more effectively choose the size of their families,” explained Madsen. “Today, about 215 million women across the developing world would like to delay or avoid pregnancy but are using ineffective contraception or none at all.
 
Last December, President Benigno Aquino III signed the Reproductive Health Bill. “(The RH Bill) is not about religion or about population control. This is pure and simple legislation,” said Iloilo Representative Janette Garin, a proponent of the bill. She said that the measure “responds to the call of our people.”
 
In conclusion, the ECSP report said: “Wealthier people and developed nations consume significantly more resources per capita than poor people and developing countries, driving climate change, deforestation, water scarcity, food insecurity, and biodiversity loss.  Although focusing on rapid population growth is important, we should never ignore the outsize impact of global consumption by wealthier nations.”
 
The two authors added that the seven challenges they outlined do not have quick or easy answers. “But fulfilling the unmet need for contraception of more than 200 million women is an effective and inexpensive step,” the two pointed out.  “Empowering women through access to education and healthcare will help them help their families and their countries.” – ###